The Buchanan Garden Club will host its annual Arbor Day celebration at 10 a.m. Friday, April 25 at the Gazebo at Front and Oak Streets in Buchanan. As in past years, there will be music and a celebration of the trees in the city as well as the ones to be planted following the ceremony.

A large number of Buchanan’s Ottawa Elementary School fourth graders will be special guests of the garden club, as will Corbin Detgen and Buchanan’s Miss Blossomtime Roxie Elliott who, respectively, will speak to the children and sing the National Anthem. Two swamp White Oak trees will be blessed and then planted on the west side of Pears Mill.

Arbor Day is observed to remind Americans that trees play a critical part in the health of Mother Earth, providing oxygen, windbreaks, shade and building materials. The oxygen-to-carbon dioxide exchange itself makes a case for Arbor Day plantings.

The history of National Arbor Day has its roots in Michigan.

J. Sterling Morton, originally from Detroit, was the editor of a Nebraska newspaper in the mid-nineteenth century. With that bully pulpit, Morton encouraged his fellow Nebraskans to plant trees for their many natural benefits.

“Each generation takes the earth as trustees” is a quote attributed to Morton and, in 1874, he was behind making Arbor Day a Nebraska state holiday celebrated each April. By 1882, Arbor Day became a national observance on or near Morton’s birthday, April 22.

The Buchanan Garden Club, which is open to the public, is made up of 48 men and women who meet monthly to learn more about gardening and horticulture in the Midwest. The club members tend the Gazebo Garden and the Buchanan Welcome Sign Garden at Red Bud Trail and Front St., as well as the summer flower plantings in the downtown area and farmers’ market.